UConn coaches excited about QB competition
STORRS — Jim Mora has had no problems deciding on a starting quarterback coming out of summer camp in his first two seasons as coach of the UConn football team.
The issue has been that quarterback hasn’t stayed healthy.
Ta’Quan Roberson won the job in 2022. But after scoring a touchdown on the first drive of the opener at Utah State, his season ended on the second possession when he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.
A year ago, Joe Fagnano beat out Roberson and incumbent Zion Turner. The transfer from Maine made it through the opener but he injured his right shoulder running an option play in the second quarter of the second game at Georgia State and missed the rest of the season.
Roberson, a senior who started the final 10 games last year, is back and Fagnano, also a senior, is again healthy. They will likely battle it out again for the starting job while redshirt freshman Tucker McDonald and true freshman Cole Welliver from Texas fill out the quarterback room for the Huskies, who are looking to bounce back from 2023’s 3-9 campaign.
“It’s a great quarterback corps,” UConn’s top returning receiver Brett Buckman said. “I love the guys we’ve got. We have a lot of experience in our room with Ta’Quan and Joe. Tucker has been here. Cole has been great coming in as a freshman. He has shown a lot of great things. We’re really excited to have our whole quarterback corps.
“Joe and Ta’Quan have grown from another year in the offense, another offseason in the offense, another offseason building chemistry with the receivers. I feel like we’ve all grown together, because we learned the nuances deep in the offense and being able to know where we are going to be on the field just from throwing togeth
er on our own. Our chemistry has grown a lot.”
UConn averaged only 19.1 points per game and were held to 17 points or fewer in its first four games and six times on the season. Its run-to-pass ratio was 51-49 percent as its offensive line was a strength and allowed only 12 sacks on the season. It averaged 190.3 passing yards per game, which ranked 102nd out of 130 in FBS. Two top receivers — tight end Justin Joly (North Carolina State) and Cameron Ross (James Madison) — transferred. Buckman had 46 catches for 458 yards and two scores.
Roberson completed 58.2 percent of his passes (197 for 338) for 2,075 yards and 12 touchdowns with six interceptions. In his limited action against North Carolina State and Georgia State, Fagnano was 18-for-35 (51.4 percent) for 173 yards with an interception.
“We’re blessed to have what we have right now with those guys, and they have experience,” UConn first-year offensive coordinator Gordon Sammis said. “I’ve been places where we went to the first game and all four quarterbacks on the roster hadn’t taken a college snap. That was not fun, because you don’t know what you’re going to get.
“In terms of the two older guys, they are battling. You can kind of see Ta’Quan
running a lot better with his knee when he keeps the ball than we have seen him in the past. So from the ACL in 2022 until now you can just see how much better his knee has gotten. Joe is just steady as hell. He is a great quarterback. You know what you’re going to get out of Joe every day. He makes the right throw, makes the right decision and he has a lot of command out there.”
Sammis was the Huskies’ offensive line coach for two years. UConn also had a new quarterbacks coach in Brad Robbins, who spent 2023 at Tennessee Tech as its pass game coordinator and wide receivers coach.
McDonald’s only action a season ago came in the final two minutes of the season-finale at UMass.
Welliver enrolled for the spring semester after guiding Liberty Christian High to the TAPPS (Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools) Division 2 state championship in the fall.
“Tucker and Cole have really progressed this spring,” Sammis said. “Tucker kind of adds a little more of a running element for us that I like and he has really progressed with his reads and stuff like that. Cole has a cannon for an arm and is really advanced in terms of being a thrower which is great to see. He is kind of what you would expect from a guy who played Texas high school football and played for Jason Witten. He learned some high level stuff from him.”
Under Witten, a former tight end for the Dallas Cowboys, Liberty Christian finished 14-0 in 2023 with Welliver throwing for 3,082 yards and 50 touchdowns.
He is the highest-rated high school recruit Mora has signed in his tenure at UConn.
“Cole has shown a lot,” Buckman said. “He came here from the start and really learned the offense. Every day before practice he comes in here and goes over the plays before practice to get it down. He has done a great job and really impressed me with how he has handled it and with how mature he is in that aspect of knowing the offense and not making mistakes mentally. He’s been great.”
UConn opens the regular season at Maryland on Aug. 31.
“When we make a decision to go one way, we have to make sure we structure our offense so they can have success,” Mora said.